


Bored and Alienated

by vtn



Category: Manic Street Preachers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-05
Updated: 2010-01-05
Packaged: 2017-11-17 09:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vtn/pseuds/vtn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Manic Street Preachers as four bored and alienated kids, growing up in Wales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wales, 1990, heights of boredom.

Manic Street Preachers, 1990, Wales. Heights of boredom.

"This boredom's the failure of the sex revolution," says Richey. He tosses the rubber ball to James up in the top bunk.

"Because we're still not getting laid?" Nicky says.

"Speak for yourself," says Sean.

"Oh yeah, when was the last time you got any?" James. Sean throws a shoe at him. "Why is everyone throwing things at me?" Nicky kind of wonders where Sean learned to take his shoes off that fast.

"Mass-produced sex..." Richey says. James is bouncing the ball off the ceiling. "Billboard prostitution..."

"So every time I look at a photo of a naked woman I just roll my eyes and think she's advertising something," Nicky starts and Sean and James quickly cut in with "Boredom, boredom, boredom, boredom."

"Oh listen, it's the bloody Bobbsey twins," Nicky says, leaning his head back. It smacks against the wall, and it hurts more than Nicky thought it would. He thinks he might start crying a little bit. There are definitely tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Who the hell are the Bobbsey twins?" James complains.

"Nicky the Wire, nose constantly in a book," Sean says with a snigger. "Be damn glad you weren't born a girl, you're already horribly freakish as it is."

"Doomed, really doomed," Nicky agrees. "What, Richard, you weren't going to call Moore here out on his blatant misogynism?"

"Oh, I think he'd have been my girlfriend," says Richey. A rare moment of speculation on his part. "We would have stayed up all hours reading Nietzsche to each other."

"Er," Nicky says, "Isn't that exactly how it _did_ happen?"

"Well," says Richey, pulling a face, "If you'd been a girl you wouldn't have such hairy legs."


	2. I Heart Hoovering

"Domestic fantasy, giving in to the patriarchy, feminist backlash, trophy of chastity, symbol of oppression," says Richey loudly. Nicky turns off the hoover for a moment.   
  
"Are you reciting poetry or actually criticizing me?" Nicky puts his hands on his hips, then takes them off, realizing it's probably a very feminine gesture.   
  
"Just talking bullshit," Richey replies, smiling shyly. Richey's always had this little kid's smile, like he's innocent which is obviously not the case. "I still think it's funny, though, that you're so obsessed with housekeeping, and that you have to do it in a dress all the time."  
  
"I wanna be a girl," Nicky says obstinately. He turns the hoover back on, sucks crumbs from under the bed. Why the hell were there crumbs under the bed. "Were you eating on the bed?" Richey pulls a face.  
  
"No. Turn that off. It's releasing gases into the air."   
  
"I get it." Nicky turns it off and puts it down, defeated.  
  
"What."  
  
"You're just saying controversial things to make me pay attention to you."  
  
"What else is new?" Richey reaches onto the bedside table where there is a half-eaten crumpet. "Do you want a crumpet?"  
  
"I thought you just said you weren't eating on the bed." Richey just stares. "And, okay, yes, I want the crumpet."   
  
"Do you really want to be a girl?" Richey says once they're lying next to each other against the pillows, anchored at the elbow. Nicky has noticed that Richey likes those small points of contact, little ways of reminding yourself that other people actually exist. It is hard to play the game where you're the only person in the world (this is like the story that made what's his name go crazy in  _Breakfast of Champions_ , which Nicky likes and Richey thinks is self indulgent trash and that  _Slaughterhouse-Five_  is Vonnegut's best and Nicky likes 'everything was beautiful and nothing hurt' but thinks that all the sci-fi crap in the novel is just put in there to sell copies and completely ruins the purpose) and you're the only one with the ability to think freely when you can feel someone else's heartbeat against your elbow.  
  
"I don't know," says Nicky.   
  
"The only thing I can think of that would make sex more unpleasant in general is having to experience it as a woman," Richey muses, bending the arm that isn't touching Nicky so he can play with his hair.  
  
"Sex isn't unpleasant if you stop thinking about how it's a symbol of sexist oppression, you know," Nicky says. "I mean, it has been used that way, in history, but like, it isn't fundamentally oppressive, it's the most natural thing I can think of other than taking a wee in the woods."  
  
"Maybe I could be a lesbian," says Richey. "The phallus is so hard to take seriously."  
  
"If you just keep laughing at it, it's never going to be serious! You've got to stop typecasting your penis."  
  
"I'm not typecasting my penis," says Richey. "Has anyone ever said that before? 'I'm not typecasting my penis'? Besides, why are we talking about me now? I thought we were discussing your relationship with binary gender."  
  
"I don't want to talk about relationships," says Nicky. He laughs and ducks his head. Richey hits him with a pillow.


End file.
